Air Force Staff Sgt. Johanna Esquivel, 2nd Operational Medical Readiness Squadron medical technician, takes a test during a Tactical Combat Casualty Care class at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana in early Dec. Barksdale medics must take a three day course to be trained on the new TCCC guidelines. (Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jacob Wrightsman)
At Barksdale, TCCC has been drilled into the minds and actions of Barksdale’s medics by the means of a three day, hands-on class.
“Over the past 20 years of combat that we’ve had, a lot of the evidence based practices and lessons learned have been incorporated into the TCCC course,” Camacho-Ayala said. “I always tell folks that these lessons were written in blood, because someone had to get wounded in order to implement these actions.”
The lessons taught to the medics attending the course are put to the test on the final day as the students run through a real-world field training exercise. Complete with life-like dummies, smoke machines and simulated gunfire, the medics must tactically provide care under fire, provide tactical field care and finally provide rapid evacuation care.
“With the dynamics of hearing the shooting and the alarms going off, the training really puts you in the field,” said Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Melissa Sartain, 2nd Maintenance Squadron first sergeant and student of the TCCC course. “As medical personnel who don’t carry weapons as often, being able to go out there with the weapon, with the Kevlar helmet plus the gear, securing your weapon and still providing care and doing it tactically is an important piece as we go down-range.”
All-in-all, the new standard of TCCC is designed to save the lives of those in combat. By providing Barksdale’s medics with tactical field training, the 2nd Medical Group will do just that.
“This is the way forward, not just for the Air Force but the DoD as a whole,” said Camacho-Ayala. “It’s paramount that we train our folks not just to competency but to make sure that they are proficient in the way we care for patients. Our main goals as medics is to provide that care that we promised to our fellow soldiers.”